The Supreme Court on Monday sought a status report from the SIT constituted by it to probe allegations against former CBI director Ranjit Sinha in the coal block allocation scam. The court asked the agency to finalise some cases in relation to the scam, pending before it, by January 15, 2018.

The bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, Kurian Joseph and A K Sikri gave the SIT four weeks to file the report in a sealed cover.

Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Prashant Bhushan told the bench that many months had gone by since the SIT was formed and it should be asked to submit a report of its investigation.

The SIT headed by the CBI director was constituted on January 23 to look into charges that Sinha tried to influence the coal scam probe. Senior advocate R S Cheema, special public prosecutor in coal scam cases, submitted that eight related CBI cases were pending consideration before the highest authority of the agency. The bench then directed the CBI director to finalise these before January 15, 2018.